Psalms 104:21–24

³⁹Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,

²⁰The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

¹⁰The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.

²And say, What is thy mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.

³And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.

⁴The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.

⁵Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.

⁶And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.

⁷And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.

⁸Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.

⁹And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰¶ Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

¹¹And she had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.

¹²But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.

¹³And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.

¹⁴And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

²²Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.

⁴Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?

⁴For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.

⁴¹Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

¹⁸How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

¹⁵The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.

⁹He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

⁸Then the beasts go into dens, and remain in their places.

¹³They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

¹⁴The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.

¹⁵The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face.

¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.

¹⁷For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

²⁰For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

¹⁷Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

¹⁹In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

¹²The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.

²⁸Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

¹⁶¶ And, behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even, which was also of mount Ephraim; and he sojourned in Gibeah: but the men of the place were Benjamites.

⁸Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:

⁹Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.

¹⁰For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

¹¹For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.

¹²Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.

¹²He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

⁵Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

¹⁰For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

¹¹I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

¹⁰To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

³³O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

³¹Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

²⁴¶ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

²⁵And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

¹THE earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

⁵To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever.

³When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

⁶Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

¹⁹The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.

²⁰By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.

²²The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

²³I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

²⁴When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

²⁵Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

²⁶While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

²⁷When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:

²⁸When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:

²⁹When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

³⁰Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;

³¹Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.

³²Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.

³³Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.

³⁴Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

³⁵For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.

³⁶But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

⁸Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

³¹And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

⁹Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:

¹⁷Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;

¹¹Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.

¹¹And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

¹²And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.